Next Year’s Study Project

Every year I pick a topic to study for the whole year. It’s been a joy to do this for the last 6 years and each time I benefit from the study. I have a general system for determining what I will study and it has always helped me narrow the myriad of options down to a single subject to study. Next year, however, I will not be applying my system. Instead, an exciting new opportunity will dictate what I study.

I have been invited to participate in a research project with some real potential impact behind it. I am not at liberty to say much else about it at the moment, but the research will require me to spend a significant amount of time studying, reading, and processing various works on the subject of discipleship. This means that, though I had planned on studying the book of Leviticus this coming year, I will have to postpone that as I dive more into a theological and methodological investigation of disciple-making in the Scriptures, history, and the contemporary church. I am so thankful for the many friends who will be able to help me with this project and for my partners in the study. As usual you can look here at my blog to gain some insight into the fruits of this study. A more substantial project in the future will reveal all the fruit of this study, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

The project will take a look at the Biblical theology of discipleship, the practical methodology, and examine a particular holistic approach to the subject based off some other theological foundations. This is, I recognize, all very vague, but it will be clarified in due time. I will be examining a number of major works that have been produced in the last few years. Among those works I am most keenly interested in the internal research of Willow Creek who several years ago realized that their own disciple-making was not producing the fruit they thought it was. I am also interested in more deeply theological works that examine a big-picture look at what the Scriptures say about disciple-making. The list of books to read is quite long, and while I won’t be reading all of them, nor will I be the only one reading them, I am excited to dig into them.

It is a strange thing to have your research picked for you. I have enjoyed the freedom of being out of school and getting to decide what I read, when I read it, and what I do with it. But this is such a unique opportunity that I am happy to forgo my own freedoms to participate in this project. I will reveal more details as I am allowed in the future. The hope is that this will not simply benefit me, but, as usual, it will prove to be valuable to many other brothers and sisters both in formal and in informal ministry. Thank you for all my regular readers who tolerate my own eccentricities on a regular basis. I hope this project benefits you as much as it does me.